Trailer Brakes

[Eveready1100]

Finally had a bit of luck sunshine wise, so I took the old girl out for a run through my local twisty bits. I was hoping to hook up with Steptoe for a joint ride, but it looked like it was raining again out his way, so I did a solo run just to check things out. Result = I'm rapt with the difference.
The brakes are much more controllable due probably by the directness of the pedal feel compared to the old cable setup. The pedal travel is longer than that of the normal rear brake pedal, so retardation is less for the trailer than for the (bike) rear brake, which means that with normal pressure on the pair of pedals, I can just feel the effect of the trailer dragging the bike back without the dramas of wheel locking etc. There is an adjustment hole in the pedal to reduce the travel which will make the brakes stronger for when the rig is fully loaded and will alleviate the need to heel & toe the brakes as I used to have to do with the old setup.
I gave my new video camera a tryout as well, but you soon learn why people do things in a certain way. I fitted mine inside my helmet, which gave a clear view of where I was going, and the sound was OK, too. Problem is that you don't realise how much you look around when riding. So much so that I was getting dizzy watching the playback, so I'll try a more standard type mount position for my next effort.

[Eveready1100]

Had a bit more of a play in the garage today. Had to pull the calipers and twist them around so the bleeders were on topThen set them up so the bleeding process could begin.



Then made a little stand so I could have the master cylinder and the calipers in easy reach of each other.



Had some dramas getting the bleed started so I disconnected the line halfway along and looped it back to the M/C and kept pumping till all the air bubbles stopped coming out of the line. Reconnected it, then restarted bleeding.I was making better progress now, as the lever had a lot more feel to it. After the calipers were bled completely, I disconnected the bleed lines and swung the them back up and refitted them to the mounts.


Now just waiting for a bit of sunshine to hook it up to the bike and take it out for a test run.

[Eveready1100]

I think I found what was causing the issues with the trailer brakes. One of the discs now has sideways runout of about 5mm, which will be working the pads and pistons hard on the highway and probably causing a lot of heat. I'm going to check the adapter in case it's not sitting properly on the hub. I hope thats's all that's wrong there.
As for our test run, Steps, maybe when all the planets are in alignment and it's also a blue moon, plus a king tide, and a total lunar eclipse, and the rain has stopped, and you and I are off work simultaneously, then we might get a short hop in, hopefully

[steptoe]

that has come together beautifully Ev

practical, and looks good

now,,,,,,,,for that test run

[Eveready1100]

I got the bike end of the system finished at least.
Fabbed up this little brackety thing to bolt to the footpeg mount casting



Then bolted the ZZR master cylinder on (it used to hide under the esky cover on the trailer)



Then fitted the pedal and link rod.............



Plus a wee eyelet thingie to keep the line away from the rear tyre.



Now with the removal of just two main nuts plus the eyelet on the towbar ( takes 30 seconds now)



The whole assembly comes off clean and hangs on the trailer drawbar when not in use.



Now for the trailer end on my next days off. Just trimming the insides of the calipers to give a bit more clearance for the wider XS discs due to slight binding issues and all should be good. More pics then.
Oh, and yes, I am going to wash the bike............eventually